100+ Books in 2024 discussion

1/200 - Life Comes from Life by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (1 star)

Length: 107 pages

Short description: This is a pure trash. Surely the worst of all 200 books I intend to read this year. It doesn't teach you absolutely anything more than how to be a closed minded and uneducated fanatic. Author is trying his best to construct his fantasy world and to convince everyone around him that it is a scientifically proven reality, and he gets extremely hostile, rude and angry (strange for a "holy man", isn't it?) when someone disputes him and completely wrecks his claims in a few seconds. Swami Prabhupada was possibly mentally ill, or just a very closed minded, hostile, uneducated, and overall harmful human being which life goal was to lead people into a fantasy land and subdues them to his will. This terrible book is a shameful monument to that. The main purpose of this book is to redicule and dispute scientific theories like the theory of evolution, and to prove that god created everything. This unholy idiot fails miserably, of course, but without even realising it. His main "arguments", which he repeats over and over again, are: "Scientists can't create life from a dead matter, so it must mean they are wrong about God not being a creator". This is equally intelligent "argument" as if it would be for him to say to a scientist to ejaculate on a tree branch and then accuse him for not being able to create life, or challenge him to create a new planet and then victoriously scream that that is evidence that scientist can't do anything and that matter surelly can't never create life. Idiot.
Other of fine examples of his "supreme" argumentations are - "It is so because I believe it is so. If you believe something else, then you are not allowed to make theories but to prove your claims immediately. In the meanwhile I'm going to claim whatever I want, without any proof whatsoever, and continue being right", and "I know that it is so because Bhagavadgita said it is so. And Bhagavadgita is undoubtedly true because I say it was written by god, and the text claims it also, so I belive it. It simply can't be fantasy, because text himself claims otherwise". Lol. So you see, he is a religious freak and a fanatic without any understanding, logic, tolerance or authority whatsoever.
The most disgusting part comes at the end of the book, when Hare Krishnas start invading privacy of some scientist they want to dispute, insult him via letters, and to redicule him and gloat over his condition because he has cancer, so his science is worth shit, because he can't cure himself.
This book is a clear example of why Hare Krishnas mustn't be given any authority, and why they should preferably be disbanded. Because they actively contribute to de-evolution of human mind, and are very vigorous and violent in their efforts to spread their uneducation to the masses. They are a disease. Being religious is something else, and everybody has a right to his beliefs. But when you claim that you are a scientist but you are actualy seducing people back into middle ages, and you simply won't accept other world views, or a simple fucking evidence against you, or a disagreement, then your fanatic ass needs to be stopped at all costs.

2/200 - Umijeće sumnje: nagovor na skeptičko mišljenje [original title: Die Kunst des Zweifelns: Anleitung zum skeptischen Denken] by Andreas Urs Sommer (2 stars)

Length: 127 pages

Short description: This was, honestly, a dissapointment. It is a philosophical publication on the subject of the philosophical doubt. But instead of being quite anarchic and radical, this book is too damn mellow and neutral, like it seriously lacks guts, especially if you consider the thematics chosen by the author - doubt.
Author comments on all most important aspects of life and society from the point od a philosopher who independently doubts every involved opinion and theory. But, that, instead of some radical conclusions, brings him to face a wall. He doubts conservative viewpoints, then he doubts liberal ones. But then, he feels obliged to doubt even his right to doubt any of those stances, in order to consistently stay in doubt. And we all can see why that is a radical bullshit. It brings you to the state of being frozen, inactive and powerless. Author, of course, denies it, but doesn't even nearly plausibly explain how that is not the case.
Besides that, this book suffers from the serious disproportion of it's ambition and style. It is written in extremely serious, vocational and philosophical tone which will simply be "too much" for an average reader, yet still, in it's ambition it is no more than a book on popular philosophy, which will make laics and academics equally dissatisfied with the bought product.

3/200 - Tradicija eksperiment avangarda (O modernoj hrvatskoj lirici) by Nikola Ivanišin (3 stars)

Length: 229 pages

Short description: This is a collection of essays on the subject of the phenomenon of the expressionist poetry in Croatia. It's author managed to produce a coherent and easily readable book on the subject, suitable for educating masses about some basics on the topic of Croatian expressionist poetry. That is a plus. But the minus is that this book is really not that important. Or not important at all. It is just a sum of widely known facts on that matter, subjective interpretations, arguable conclusions, and is filled with lists of artistic imagery characteristic for important expressionst or quasi-expressionist poets, such as Kamov, Kranjčević, Krleža, etc. It has no thesis of it's own, and is very forgettable, in a sence you really feel it didn't quite add to expanding your horizons, it just summed some unimportant or widely known facts.

4/200 - Laka i teška književnost: predavanja o postmodernizmu i trivijalnoj književnosti by Milivoj Solar (5 stars)

Length: 166 pages

Short description: I'm usually not a big fan of academic writing, but this is something special. It is a book made of public lectures held by Croatian professor Solar, and he is dealing with the phenomenons of "trivial" and "serious" literature in this publication.
It is important to say that this attitude towards this subject is more than fair and very reasonable. He doesn't take sides, and doesn't by default glorify "serious" literature, but stays a professional explorer until the very end. And not to mention that this theoretical and academical book is very readable, which is so so rare. Even people who didn't study humanist studies can profit from it, understand it well, and possiby even enjoy it.
Main thesis is that "trivial" and "serious" literature are to be defined and diversed concerning their attitude towards the history of literature. Also, Solar makes very interesthing thesis about why some books are more appealing to us than the others. He proposes that everything that mirrors some situation, problem, attitude, etc. in which we can recognize ourselves becomes more relevant and more involving, therefore more interesting.
I highly recommend this splendid academic piece of literature, and that is a rare occasion on my lists.

5/200 - Gargantua [original title: La vie tres horrifique du grand Gargantua pere de Pantagruel] by François Rabelais (3 stars)

Length: 135 pages

Short description: Well, this was quite odd. This is a famous French renaissance novel, and I didn't know what to expect. Turns out that this is a crossover between an insolent satire, knight novel, fairytale, and didactic writing. And first thing that you realise about it is that it is one of the most saucy novels with such an over the top squeamish humour concerning every known bodily fluid, that it would be considered trash if published today, under a modern name.
But I had no problem with it's bodily fluid obssession. In fact, I found it the better part of the book. Things such as overeating until vomiting, being drunk all the time and cursing god and saints, shitting diarrhea in the woods until your intestines burst and wiping your ass with skins of every imaginable animal are common themes in this novel. Fun and grotesque, to say at least. And clergy is pictured as a bunch of greedy, insolent and half retarded idiots.
The problem is that only a half of the book is that entertaining. The second half is like written by another person. grotesque jokes cease almost entirely as an endlessly boring war creeps into the narration. Also, the book tries to be didactic all of the sudden, after all that hillarious fart, shit, piss and cock jokes. And it doesn't work. It simply begins to get boring.

6/200 - The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (5 stars)

Length: 137 pages

Short description: Psychological horror, gothic novels ambience, multiple layers of meaning - there's nothing not to love about this book. It is, basically, a ghost story, but at the end, it is up to reader to figure out for himself what actually happened. Building up the tension and claustrophobic atmosphere is masterfully done, and insight into the thoughts of a main character is equally disturbing, for reader is never actually certain is he also suffering from main character's misconceptions because of the novel's viewpoint. This is one of the books that make you feel sorry you haven't written them yourself after you finish reading.

7/200 - Povijest hrvatske književnosti: Raspeta domovina by Slobodan Prosperov Novak (4 stars)

Length: 265 pages

Short description: This is a 1st part of an encyclopedic review of the history of Croatian literature. It is surprisingly good, for it is not dull and exhausting even though it is filled with endless names and facts. It's writer knew better, and as much as he accentuated facts, he also strongly accentuated the anecdotal side of every writer's biography. This book si filled with useful facts, and it kind of goes beyond of mentioning only the most famous names in Croatian literature from the middle ages up to romanticism - it also includes lesser known but very important and interesting figures.

8/200 - Virgin Planet by Poul Anderson (3 stars)

Length: 249 pages

Short description: This sf novel is not as impressive as it's author thinks it is. He himself describes it as a very serious sf novel hardly based in science. But, no matter how many calculations it is based upon, it is without a doubt a pulp fiction. The premise itself is very interesting - a single man trapped on a planet filled with females - but author makes minimal effect out of it, and by that I don't mean it lacks banging. No. It lacks originality, fleshiness, believeable dialogues, character development, suspense, and overal, it lacks impressive storytelling. It is not a desaster, it is just ok. Best to read once and forget about it.

9/200 - The Call of the Wild by Jack London (5 stars)

Length: 116 pages

Short description: An example of perfect prose - fluent, exciting, touching, and from time to time contemplative. It was a really refreshing read, and broke my insides more than once. A story of a dog sold into north of Canada to work in hardest conditions imaginable is engaging in itself, but when you add memorable human and animal characters, fluent and clear expression that is almost journalist-like, and mix it with themes like fighting for survival, stories of unimaginable cruelty and indestructability of one's will to live, it is a really out of this world experience.

10/200 - Er ist wieder da by Timur Vermes (4 stars)

Length: 314 pages

Short description: This is a novel that, I imagine, must've stirred some controversy. It's about Adolf Hitler inexplainably coming back to life in modern Germany. The book is very funny, and it's not a cheap, but intelligent kind of humor. Hitler's reaction and commentary on modern world is believable, witty and amusing. And Hitler is not by default depicted as a maniac, for that would kill the book immediately. Instead of that, author was smart enough to show Hitler as a human being who is sometimes lost, sometimes stupid, sometimes, witty, sometimes even brave, sometimes irrational, and sometimes an infamous dictator we all know. Book gained on it's credibility by doing so, and it is especially important for it's author to have guts to write so neutral and amusing prose about Hitler in 21st century, in which everybody is offended by everything, and the dogma of political correctness is becoming concerningly oppressive.
On the other hand, this enjoyable novel is sometimes struggling with it's own fluidity. The plot development occasionally suffers, for it is being held back in favor of long and kind of unnecessary introspections of the main character.
But, back again on the bright side - author has masterfully managed to save his novel from being drowned in historical references on the one side, and from drowning in triviality on another. It contains enough historical references to be plausible, but they are masterfully inserted so they don't hold back average educated reader from fully enjoying this witty, bold and politically incorrect novel.

11/200 - Black House by Stephen King & Peter Straub (5 stars)

Length: 589 pages

Short description: This is a very strange book, even for King's standards. But, it doesn't dissapoint.
I was almost quitting on it first 30 pages into the story, for the introduction is extremely (and I mean EXTREMELY) slow paced, unnecessary detailed and told from a strange perspective, like writers are leading you through their imaginary town on a tourist trip, holding your hand and commenting everytihng behind your shoulder (it has sense when concerning The Dark Tower series, and I needed time to realise that). But, once the plot really started, I was enchanted until the last page of this gigantic tome, like always.
It is almost eerie how interwined this 2 writers got in telling this story, their tell-tale voices almost became one. I had a feeling I was reading a book written JUST by Stephen King. But, something tells me that I'd think the opposite if I only was familliar with Straub's novels like I'm only familiar with King's. Anyhow, they managed to accomplish the storytelling synchronicity, that's my point.
Furthermore, this is one of the scariest King's books I've read (and I've read lots and lots of them), so it is also a huge plus. The story's (seemingly) about a child killer in a small american town that also likes to eat bodyparts of his little victims.
It is also a sequel to the book Talisman, also written by King & Straub, but it is, at the same time, so much more than just a sequel. It is also a "filler" book for King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower series, that binds all Kings books togeather anyhow.
The best part of it are the characters which are alive and mesmerising as always as when King is involved. Once again he, with Straub, managed to create a whole little town filled with all sorts of characters, and once you begin reading, that town becomes really alive for you.
I'd say it is a prerequisite to read Dark Tower books and Talisman before trying on this one If you want to have any clue what is it all about, but for all Tower and Talisman fans, this is a must read.

12/200 - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (2 stars)

Length: 160 pages

Short description: Yeah, yeah, I know - this a modern classic, one of the first examples of modern writing, etc. etc. Keep it for yourself. I was unimpressed. And if something is pioneering work, that doesn't guarantee it's quality.
I like the alegorical aspect of this novel. I particularly like how expectations that are being built sky-high on meeting misterious Kurtz remain unfullfilled when reader is confronted with a shell that remained of him. I even like how we never got to know anything concrete about him - what was so fascinating in his personality? What?
But this book is destroyed by the style with which it has been written, by the language being used. Sentences are so uninteresting, poor, dry, and unimaginative most of the time that it is really hard to focus on what is going on (and that is not much). Language of this work fails to transfer the reader to the place about which it is talking about. And that's cardinal sin in the Novel Land.

13/200 - The Haunted Vagina by Carlton Mellick III (4 stars)

Length: 80 pages

Short description: Few days ago I learned about the existance of a new literary pulp subgenre called "bizarro". And this bizarro short novel is anything but your typical pulp literature.
Bizarro could be compared to japanese "ero guro nansensu" movement, but with American estetics. And it's main feature is that it makes no fucking sense, it's surreal and abnormal, but this book is also a good literature, which I really didn't expect from a book titled The Haunted Vagina. It's characters are not completely blank, but they have personalities and are loveable and interesting, sentences just flow, and the story is just fucking fun and interesting all the way. It may not bee deep literature, but it is good literature, storywise. You can really sense the storytelling gift this man has, unlike in most pulp fiction novels. Not every good literature should mean "deep" in the first place. This one is just good as in just enjoyable.
The story is this (spoiler alert?): one day a man notices voices coming from his girlfriend's pussy. He refuses to have sex with her because he thinks her vagina is haunted. Eventually they do it anyway, ant that is when a fucking full sized skeleton crawls out of her vagina. After killing a skeleton, a guy decides to venture into his girlfriend's pussy and discovers a whole world inside of her, filled with surreal landscapes and animated skeletons. What the fuck.
Only thing I didn't like about this brilliant work of imagination is it's quite abrupt ending. If this book was like double in it's size, and if ending were more elaboratew, it would be simply perfect. I sure as hell will check out other works from this author, even if i have to order them from the internetz.

14/200 - Tamno mjesto / A dark Place by Branko Čegec (3 stars)

Lenght: 89 pages

Short description: A book of poetry by one of currently more prominent Croatian poets. It is all right, in any case much better from last one I read by him. This collection deals primarily with 3 themes: seaside vacation, traveling, and sex. It is like a personal diary, and that is it's main charm and main error. For sometimes it tends to lose reader in trivial personal matters that mean something only to the author. But the atmosphere of summer vacation on this book is so entoxicating that you will forgive it imperfections, overpersonalisation and overtrivialisation.

15/200 - Slatko lice pobune by Martina Križanić (1 star)

Length: 218 pages

Short description: All good willed and objective people today already realize what feminism is all about: it is one of the most sexist, racist and hypocritical ideologies of modern society. This terrible book proves this once again.
It is a book by Croatian author, and is dealing with Japanese fashion and female subcultures. It is insanely ill intended, one minded, hypocritical, contradictory, subjective and hateful. No surprises there.
I could write a whole book of my own analysing everything wrong with this joke of a "sociological study", but instead I'm just gonna point out some of more prominent sexist and hypocritical claims presented in this garbage.
For instance, shall we start with author's open admiration to violence, beatings, razor fights, robberies and criminal activities committed by female members of some Japanese subcultures? She sees it as a form of emancipation, of course, as a form of proving that females are equally capable as men.
Furthermore, she praises the fashion stile of Japanese female subcultures as a mean to break stereotypes and to fight capitalist and sexist society. Her miserable attempts to prove that female cultures of Japan are actually subversive and anti-capitalist in spirit are laughable, for she simply refuses to see the facts that she praises trends which rely solely on buying expensive and unusual clothes, and there is absolutely nothing anti-capitalist about it. I guess she tries to justify to ferself her own need of brainless shopping, so she can continue to call herself an anticapitalist liberal, lol.
She sees fashion trends as a mean of enslavement of females by males. She argues that sex and race are social constructs and not biological facts. She calls out white males as monsters, and generalises them all as sexual predators. She fails to call Japanese racism what it is, instead she presents is as white racism (???).
Furthermore, in many parts of text she actually unintentionally exposes her claims of horrible oppression of females in modern world and Japan as false claims, but misses to realise what she's done and keeps throwing tantrum against all things male. For example, one of the funniest parts is when she firstly claims that females in Japan are treated like dirt, but only a few sentences later she tells how Japanese females manage all family finances, how they are much less pressed by the societies great demands, how they have a period of a few years in which they are free to do as they please, which is impossible for males, how females control most of family life, how Japanese males, unlike females, have absolutely no room for individual behaviours... and still after all that she calls to resistance against such mistreatments of female gender in modern Japan. I actually think that she might have been drunk while writing this, there is no other explanation except that and endless feminist hypocrisy.
She proceeds to glorify the fact that some of those subcultures completely exclude anything remotely male, but shortly before she was bitching how modern cultures are eliminatin true femininity. Looks like only elimination of femininity is the problem, while complete elimination of masculinity is to be desired, and is to be considered gender equality. Disgusting hypocrite. But again, not surprising, coming from a feminist.
And furthermore, she constantly glorifies asexual or lesbian mindset, while calling for suppressing heterosexuality. Nothing wrong with individually being gay or asexual, but when somebody like her desires to make it a norm for all females just in order to wipe out masculinity and oppressive "normal" sexual intercourse, it gets crystal clear that you are listening to insane female Hitler.
I could continue with this for much longer, but there's no point. Just know that this book is not worth reading for it is completely sexist, hateful and filled with explicit lies. Only thing worth in here is the summed history of Japanese female subcultures, from which you can actually learn some facts, but concerning the boring style of presentation and constant attempts of indoctrination into feminism and spitting on everything male, you'd be smarter to learn about it from the internet.

16/200 - Kako biti intelektualac [original title: La vie intellectuelle: Son espirit, ses conditions, ses methodes] by Antonin Sertillanges (4 stars)

Length: 178 pages

Short description: This was an interesting one. It is a publication about how to become and stay an intellectual, what does it mean to be one, what are intellectual's main goals, how to acheive them, how to train your memory, and how and what to learn. Not only it offers the perfect amount of theory and practical advices, but it's style is of a very good and wise prose. But what makes it even more interesting is the fact that it's author was a dominican prisest. He was obviously a true intellectual because his religious believes didn't keep him from writing a truely useful and realistic book about mind work. He also has enough reason to point out the great contributions and importance of authors such as Darwin and similar ones, which is what you'd not expect from a pries any day (at least not from a regular one, but regular priests are surely not intelectuals, and Antonin surely is). Yes, he keeps pointing out the importance of prayer in intellectual's life, and yes, he has not a politically correct opinion on women's part in all of this intellectual work, but contrary to that, this is still a very inspiring, wise and usefull book. Only a true anti-intellectual could ever be so arrogant to dispose this book's treasures away just because it's author was a priest who was living in his time and didn't really much think of women. Context matters, fools.

17/200 - Kulture interneta: Virtualni prostori, stvarne povijesti i živuća tijela [original title:
Cultures of Internet. Virtual Spaces, Real Histories, Living Bodies.] by Various (editor: Rob Shields (2 stars)

Length: 194 pages

Short description: This is a collection of essays on the subject of internet and virtual reality. It was composed in 1996 (some of it's works date a year of two earlier than that) and it was translated onto my edition's language in 2001, for unknown reasons, because it's not really relevant any more. And that's what makes books of this type good or bad - if they lose on their relevance completely, they simply failed. They should remain somewhat relevant despite technological rapid changes. This book illustrates that point perfectly, for most of it's texts are irrelevant today (they focus on concrete internet phenomenons from 90's), but some texts manage to keep relevant for they approach this subjects not by foccusing on a concrete phenomenon but on overall theory of cyberspace.

18/200 - Pjesme i epigrami [original title: Iani Pannonii quinque Ecclesiensis episcopi; Iani Pannonii Epigramata sive Lusus juveniles] by Ivan Česmički (Ianus Pannonius) (4 stars)

Length: 175 pages

Short description: This is a collection of poems and epigrams written by a Croatian 15th century priest who originally wrote on Latin and not on Croatian language, as was in fashion in those times. His poems remain relevant, good and interesting nowdays, and that is because he somewhat managed, unlike many many other Croatian authors from that time, to write his poetry in a more personal manner, and not just using traditional formulas of expression. He wrote about the death of his mother, of his ruined health, of things surrounding him, of people that wronged him or flattered him. Because of it, his poetry remained not just a poetic phrase, but a living testimony from once a living man.

19/200 - Stope u pijesku vremena by Anđelka Korčulanić (4 stars)

Length: 94 pages

Short description: Another good book of poetry by a Croatian author. Every time I find a good one I am kind of shocked, because there are so many poor ones.
Main themes of this book of poetry are sea, loneliness, departure, nature, aging and love. Quite universal. And quite cliche-inducing. But this book manages to avoid being a cliche and pathetic, for most of the time at least, although sometimes dangerously dancing on the edge of it.
But, risk of writing pathetic lyrics paid out well in this case, because, instead of pathetic poetry we got deeply intimate confession. Loneliness, lust, and sadness coming from some of this pages are overwhelming. On the other hand, poems about happiness or socially charged lyrics in this book are not as good. They are also not bad, but just seem less intimate, less lived through. In addition to these disadvantage, some of rhymes are occasionally awkward, they seem forced, and those songs would be much better if author didn't insist on rhyming. But, overall this is definitely worth checking out.

20/200 - Nana by Émile Zola (4 stars)

Length: 358 pages

Short description: A truly good classic. This book contains a glorious living world inside itself, believeable and ugly, just like our own. It is a book about the animalistic and irrational drives that ruin humans and control their lives. It is about possessing and being possessed. It is about lust, boredom, decadence. It drops readers in an endless cesspool that humanity drowns in, not sparing his senses. Massive scenes, in which characters act like a collective, are especially stron. The only downfall is that it is written in a way that doesn't introduce you enough with each individual characters before dozens of them continue parading the pages, so sometimes it can be hard to keep up who is who. Otherwise, exellent and truthful book about human nature.

21/200 - Vila Slovinka by Juraj Baraković (3 stars)

Length: 291 pages

Short description: This is a long narrative from Croatian baroque author. It is very strange in concept, dispersed, episodic, not entirely a wholesome book but more like one big epic made from various shorther narrative forms sawn together.
It is extremely hard to read because of archaic Dalmatian language on which it is written, even for Croats. But, it is something else, an unique concept in Croatian litterature.

22/200 - Noć, svjetla: priče [original title: Die Nacht, die Lichter, Stories] by Clemens Meyer (5 stars)

Length: 165 pages

Short description: Really excellent book of short stories by German author I never heard of untill now. This stories, they are highly reletable for every loner. While reading them, at some parts, I was trembling slightly. They felt like coming home after long winter day. There is something Bukowski-like in this prose, although Meyer is most certainly not a Bukowski impersonator. He does never discuss sex, drinking or similar themes, but there is some sense of loneliness and deep humaine and pessimistic view that comes from it, which makes it feel like he is Bukowski's soulmate, even though this stories, unlie Bukowski's, aren't even sarcastic, funny or vulgar, ever.
Highly reccomended for strangers travelling through the night.

23/200 - The Split Mind: Časopis za književnost i kulturu studenata Filozofskog fakulteta u Splitu by Various (3 stars)

Length: 82 pages

Short description: A literary magazine published by students of university in Split. It can be said that it's contents are more original than that of Zagreb's student magazines, but yet again, there is a big gap in the content between really good and terrible works that were published. The magazine presented us some poetry, some prose (on Croatian and on English) and 1 translation.

24/200 - Canti by Giacomo Leopardi ( 2 stars)

Length: 182 pages

Short description: Leopardi is considered a classic of Italian literature, and I can't really see why. I mean, his words are all nicely arranged and all, but they don't really say that much once you strip them naked of all their fancy helenistic, romantic, otherworldly, intellectual, philosophical decorations. What remains is really boring poetry that wants nothing to do with this world and therefore flees into the abstract boredom of transcendental.

25/200 - Poetika manirizma by Pavao Pavličić (4 stars)

Length: 240 pages

Short description: A book by the Croatian writer and a professor dealing with the subject of mannerism in literature, especially in Croatian literature. It is well written and approachable. Even people who have no real clue what the hell mannerism actually is will profit from it and learn basics. The style and language are not exhausting, and you are not bored to death while reading this type of book which is an accomplishment for itself. Some unnecessary nitpicking occures in the second part when the writer is analysing some Croatian literary works, but it is not much of a bad writing example, but a matter of an approach to the subject.

26/200 - Ženski vodič kroz Zagreb by Barbara Blasin, Igor Marković ( 4 stars)

Length: 67 pages

Short desccription: Even though this book is highly pretentious (text is served in english translation along with Croatian one, like so many people abroad will give a rat's ass about it), and even though it is filled with hatefull ideology, double standards, hipocrisy, occasional desinformations and downright lies (i. e. authors claim that status of women in Croatia is not much different now than in 19th century, or, they claim that almost no women works in influential positions in education in Zagreb today which is a shameless lie), it is still filled with interesting and less knowh trivia about Zagreb which is presented in readable and understandable way, so you can actually profit from reading it.

27/200 - Na rođenoj grudi by Ksaver Šandor Gjalski (3 stars)

Length: 225 pages

Short description: I really liked the first book by Gjalski that I read some years before. This one is not so good, but it is not a bad book either. Gjalski is a writer that writes mostly about melancholy for old times that are passing by, and about the love for his country. He spiced this subjects up a bit in a previous book I read, but in this one, everything is a bit cliche. Typical old-school love story in the center of the plot doesn't help to break that type of impression. On top of that, the narration itself is not his best - lots and lots of unnecessary repetitions and blank, useless descriptions are present in this one. Fortunately, all of that is not enough to completely destroy this novel. Characters are interesting, loveable and alive, and the atmosphere of old Croatian life from the beginning of the 20th century is intoxicating.

28/200 - My Universities by Maxim Gorky (4 stars)

Length: 148 pages

Short description: This autobiographical novel has something beutiful and authentically Russian-like contained in it's covers. It is a story of a young man's struggle in the society on the verge of revolution. It is beautiful because it is sad and it rings true in reader's ears. Many life truths are being told in here, and many fascinating and eccentric individuals are walking through it's pages. So many in fact that sometimes it is hard to remember everybody, and that's it's only downfall. This story kind of reminds me of Kerouac's most famous novels. It is filled with the same kind of sadness that comes from essential understanding of beauty and senselesness of life, and both writers are obssessed with characters who dive in life like in a wild stream that could kill them any time, but they enjoy the swim anyway.

29/200 - Moral Relativism: A Short Introduction by Neil Levy (3 stars)

Length: 158 pages

Short description: It is an interesting and bold book about human morals and relativity of ethics. But, i kind of feel that author didn't have the balls to follow his arguments all the way down the rabbit hole. He is kind of censoring himself on purpose in order not to be too controversial and his book ends without a real conclusion except the expected one: "Yeah, morals are highly relative, but some boundaries must be present in human behaviour". Also, some of his argumentation is lacking. Too much work to count it all, I'll just mention the most memorable. He argues is abortion essentially bad. Of course, feminists would crucify him if he said it was, so he argues that fetus is not a person, because it is not self-aware and has no understanding of abstract concepts as time and space. But, again, he had no balls to follow his conclusions to the very end, because with this argumentation of his, he also approved of murdering and cutting to pieces seriously retarded individuals. I doubt he overlooked this kind of things, he just didn't have the balls to touch some subjects that are controversial on the left side of ideologies, for they are ruling the public opinion and media at this moment, so he probably tought of it as commiting an career suicide if he opposes them fully and openly and relativises their worldviews.

30/200 - Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien (4 stars)

Length: 135 pages

Short description: This is a collection of some of Tolkien's LOTR-unrelated fairytales and various poems. First tale is the worst, it is called Farmer Giles of Ham, and it is full of unneccesary babbling, forgetable characters and forgetable adventures. Other two tales are much, much better. Leaf by Niggle is a beautiful tale of artist's vision and passion, and can be read as a metaphor for the proces of living and dieing, but also as a metaphor of author's struggles to finish it's life work - The Silmarillion. Smith of Wooten Major is another fine and imaginative tale of a man that gains the privilege of visiting fairy realms. It is full of Tolkien's well known fairy-related melancholy. Poetry presented in this book is also interesting and beautiful and can give you a tiny extra-glimpse into the world of Middle Earth.

31/200 - Skin Trade by George R.R. Martin (4 stars)

Length: 146 pages

Short description: This Martin's book kind of reminds me of his other nove, Fevre Dream. It also takes the cliched myth, but this time a myth about werewolves and not vampires, and tries to bring it's modern and not so cliched interpretation of that horror motive. This book is quite fluent and enjoyable, especially a witty main character (also something that is quite characteristic for Martin's work, isn't it?), but it kind of lacks depth, atmosphere and epicness of Fevre Dream. This way, it is just a really good "pulp" literature.

32/200 - To the Last Man by Zane Grey (4 stars)

Length: 325 pages

Short description: This is an enjoyable western romance novel. It's main motives are love and revenge, and all the way it dances on the very edge of becoming really cliched, but fortunately, writers plotting skills compensate for that, and make the reader to turn his view away from some lacking and predictable plot twists. Although it is sometimes unequally paced plotwise, and some of plot elements have no function whatsoever (for instance, main character's dog, which runs away, appears, and runs away again), but, despite obvious unpolishness of this work, it is still an enjoyable page turner, and sometimes that is all you can ask for. Let's not be pretentious about literature. It is an enjoyable book.

33/200 - The Lays of Beleriand by J.R.R. Tolkien (3 stars)

Length: 343 pages

Short description: I never fully understood why people are so anxious to sniff the leftovers and garbage of famous writers, and therefore never understood Christopher Tolkien's urge to publish every unfinished project and every discarded idea of his father. But yet, here it is, one of many books of Toliken's leftovers. This one contains 2 versions of 2 unfinished epic poems with thematics from Silmarillion. This poems, of course, precede the Silmarillion, and are filled with yet undefined concepts, rejected ideas and stuff like that. Along with what is left of 2 most important epics, we have also preserved fragments of few other epic poems that Tolkien never finished. Although this materials are priceless to the academic exploration of the development of Tolkien's myths, they have little to offer to the average reader. But it is somewhat interesting to see how it all developed, the story of Turin, and story of Beren and Luthien. And the poem of Beren and Luthien is, at most parts, unlike the complicated poem of Turin, quite beautiful, and it is shame that it was never finished. It also expands some very interesting scenes and motives from Silmarillion, for example, it describes the interior of Morgoth's Angband in much greater detail than the Silmarillion ever did.

34/200 - O prirodi by Ralph Waldo Emerson (3 stars)

Length: 130 pages

Short description: This book consists of Emerson's long essay Nature, of his and Whitman's letter, and of selection from Emerson's diary. Essay Nature didn't particularly well stood agains't the passing of time. It is a mistical essay about unity of microcosmos and macrocosmos, and, as most of texts that urge you to be "one with everything", it is full of contradictions and double standards while implying that thesis. Diary selection is much more interesting and full of witty and truthful toughts, and Whitman's famous letter is bat shit crazy letter of a bat shit crazy narcisist.

35/200 - Grad Sveta Nedelja: Na zapadnim vratima Zagreba by Dragutin Feletar and Romeo Ibrišević (3 stars)

Length: 50 pages

Short description: I love reading monographs about little towns and neighbourhoods near me which I can visit myself. This one is about small town Sveta Nedelja on the west end of Zagreb, and it's main feature are amazing, wonderful photographs. You get about 200 pages of photos and 50 pages of text. It textual component was as strong as visual, this would be an amazing monograph. Unfortunately, text is very flat, without a trace of personality. It simply states facts, without human touch, which is a must have in this kind of works. It feels mostly just as a paid commercial of the current mayor of the town, in order for his achievements to be praised as such.

36/200 - Mudrost snova: Kako razumjeti i primjenjivati jezik simbola [original title: Weisheit der Träume. Symbolsprache verstehen nutzen. ] by Klausbernd Vollmar (2 stars)

Length: 181 pages

Short description: From the first few pages it is apparent that the author of this self help book concerning dreams is a fraud. He mixes spiritualism with cheap (very cheap) psychology, propagates his dream explaining technique through the entire book (which he even protected with copyrights, lol!), he explains Freud's and Jung's psychology by shamelessly oversimplyfing it, or even blatantly presenting it wrong in many cases. Furthermore, he likes to pretend that he knows many stuff from many "exotic"cultures, but he clearly has no clue what he is talking about (just one of many, many examples: he claims that saying "Tat tvam asi" is of Tibetan origin), and he very commonly makes very sexist assumptions towards men and male's nature, in order to score some additional points concerning his supposed readers, who, he presumes, will be mainly female.
Although this book is shamelessly amateuristic and deceiving in many ways, it is still able to teach you a few basic facts about the history of psychoanalysis and it's main terms and main symbols in dreams, which is something.

37/200 - Umjetnici tamnog sjaja by Dražen Neimarević (4 stars)

Length: 114 pages

Short description: This is a very interesting book about artists who suffered from various mental illnesses, such as syphilis, schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism, paranoia... The book was written by a doctor from the mental asylum Vrapče in zagreb, if I understood it correctly, which makes it even more interesting. Stories presented are haunting and horrendeus, with analysis of mental illness influencing the capability of an artist to produce his art. Only weak point of this fascinating book is it's poorly structured. Artists are being presented according to illness they had, but without any coherent order, world famous artists are following Croatian artists, and it is hard to understand the criteria by which they are being put in their place in the book. Chapters conceptualized according to illnes are divided into confusing subchapters a), b) c) and so on, and the overall tone is sometimes too medical, but not to often, fortunately.

38/200 - The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer by Gary Paulsen (5 stars)

Length: 114 pages

Short description: A master storyteller! This book is for every vagabond at heart, and it reminds me a lot of the Kerouac's On the Road, but, unlike Kraouac's novel, this one is not so overly optimistic and naive, but much more realistic and darker. It shows how cruel and how beautiful can a life be for young boys lost in this world, not belonging anywhere. It's narrative is stripped bare, simplistic, and someone would say even trivial. But in it's simplicity and emotion it contains almost unmached poetry of long roads winding up before you, without end, when everything, even the next meal, is uncertain. I sure hope some of my local libraries have some more books of this dude.

39/200 - Pizzerija Kamikaze i druge priče [original title: Hakaytana Shel Kneller] by Etgar Keret (4 stars)

Length: 117 pages

Short description: This is a rather strange and highly original collection of short stories by this Israelian author who is apparently super-popular, but I haven't heard of him until now. I quite liked the stories for they are rather bizzare, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, sometimes cruel, but I can't really say much about his style because it is so unique that I'd probably do best if I just say that you should check it out yourself. The best story in this collection is the longest one, and it is by far the strangest. It is called Kneller's Happy Campers, or Pizzerija Kamikaze in Croatian translation, and it is about people who find themselves in another world after commiting suicide. That is a world for suicide victims, and everyone continues to live there just as before, with an exception that that world is even more boring and lifeless than our own. Add to that a talking dog, self proclaimed Messiah who is also a party god, dead hippy community, angels, miracles, sexual tension, search for love and meaning, roaming around in surreal landscape and you'll have this story.

40/200 - Dinamika nesvesnog [original title: Die Dynamik des Unbewußten] by C.G. Jung (4 stars)

Length: 384 pages

Short description: I approached this book with prejudice, but it managed to debunk my expectations. I heard that Jung was actually a metaphisicyst disguised as a scientist because his rediculous theory about inheritable concepts, but his hypotesis, when you let the man to speak for himself, seems rather reasonable. He even doesn't go further than just stating that this inheritable concepts, which are expressed in universal imagery and which he calls archetypes, are not all that different from instincts, which are also mind settings which we inherit from our ancestors. He doesn't go metaphysical at all, at least when concerning archetypes. There are chapters in this book which ARE highly speculative, and maybe even unscientific, where he talks about paranormal activities as manifestations of the unconscious mind, but at the same time he gives the possibility for them to be something more than that. Fortunately, those passages are rare and not that important in this book and in his work in general, for he is most famous and most important for his theory about archetypes, which he managed to present in a reasonable and possibly plausible ways.

41/200 - Tumačenje snova I [original title: Die Traumdeutung] by Sigmund Freud (3 stars)

Length: 341 pages

Short description: I am not new to Freud, so i had high expectations from this book about dreams of his, for it is one of his most influencial and most important works, and I enjoyed and greatly appreciated his other cultural and psychological works. But this one left me dissapointed after all. You can clearly see why was it so important while reading it, but you can also see how and why it didn't age well at all. While many of his theories are still valid and interesting, most of his dream interpretations in this book are clearly fabrications. What I'm trying to say is that I feel this book lacks some scientific credibility and that he was very determined to show his one-minded interpretations are working even when they obviously didn't work. Freud is usually more serious than that. He even goes as far as to claim that dreams of some of his patients, to whom he tried to prove that all dreams are manifestations of some secret inner desires, are actually fitting in his explanation when they cleary aren't fitting in, for they, his patients, obviously wanted to prove his theory wrong, and by dreaming something that he can't explain with his desire-theory they have proven it, for dream manifested their desire about Freud not being right about his desire-theory. Seriously, what?! Is this scientce?

42/200 - Ljudi iz televizora by Martina Globočnik (4 stars)

Length: 89 pages

Short description: This is thin but delicious book. It was published by anarchist publisher and it is dealing with the possibility of resisting media influence, converting it into something useful and constructive. Along with that, there is shortly presented theory of activist documentary and activist journalism as a mean to acheive that. Book is very unpretentious in style which is why it is highly readable and enjoyable even though it is a theoretical book. It's author is very reasonable while presenting her views on the mentioned topics, and is realistic in proposing strategies that will not just lead into the gutter of underground, without even hope to change a thing. She is smarter than that (which can not be sad for most activists I know), and proposes strategies of integration of meaningful content into the mainstream media. It is especially interesting to read foreword by her anarchist publishers, in which they are actually attacking her for that, they are calling out the author whose book they are publishing because she is not enough radical and wants to deal with mainstream media. Stupid idiots. Her book is really good, though.

43/200 - Riječ i slika: Hermeneutički i semantički pristup by Vanda Božičević (2 stars)

Length: 191 pages

Short description: This is a theoretical book about the subject's perception of communication via language and via visual codes. It tries very hard to prove that language and visuals like paintings are very similarly influencing and influenced by our perception.
Book is very poorly written, for it's style is almost unreadable - it is boring, pretentious, overintelectualized, dry, and in many cases, logical argumentation is very clearly subjective. Even worse, this book actually doesn't contribute with any meaningful thesis, it just goes on and on about various theories, and author picks this from one theory, that from the other, and by doing so she shapes her 200 pages long book which has nothing interesting, new, or anyhow relevant to contribute to the theory of perception. It's conclusions and premises are often trivial beyond belief, and author, normally, tries hard to cover that hilarious triviality by using lots and lots and lots of big words and complicately formulated sentences. But in the end, when we strip all that trash from the core of this text, we see it how it is - it is useless, unoriginal, meaningless, trivial, and could be easily summed up from it's 200 to 30 pages.

44/200 - The Tibetan Yogas Of Dream And Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal (2 stars)

Length: 219 pages

Short description: This one is a book about sleep and tibetan yoga. It is not as nearly interesting as it may sound. It's premises and teachings are poorly expalined, scattered all over and author seems not to understand that not all of his potential readers know something about tibetan traditions, or yoga. Add to that completely pointless beliefs presented as facts or science, and you'll be able to imagine how this book is like.

45/200 - Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (3 stars)

Length: 194 pages

Short description: A first novel from famous writer of popular western stories. It is typical for the author, for there is a love story, romantic heroes, injustice, revenge, and all that motives. But it kind of feels like his first novel indeed, for some plot twists and some happenings are certainly inexperiencedly written. But, it is fun book after all, not great, but fine.

46/200 - Histoire des explorations by Hubert Deschamps (1 star)

Length: 135 pages

Short description: This is a perfect example how not to write a historical book. It is completely useless, unable to pass even tiny bits of knowledge on to reader because it is crammed with names, years and facts. That would be fine if it was enriched with some narrative, to add flesh on the storytelling bones, but this is just an endless parade of facts. There are many names and historical happenings in every damn sentence, and writer is just flying over them, like it is enough to write down just a name, a year and sum up in 1 sentence what happened. There is absolutely nothing in this book that can keep reader's attention. It looks like a student script for a seminar he never wanted to study in a first place.

47/200 - Strukturiranje nesvjesnog: Freud i Lacan by Željka Matijašević (3 stars)

Length: 202 pages

Short description: This is a comparatory study between Freud's and Lacan's psychoanalitical theories written by a Croatian author. Book is informative, objective and serious enough to be considered scientific in it's approach, but it is presented as an introduction to Freud and Lacan, which is ludacris because it's style is very heavy and you need to push yourself through it like thorugh a jungle in order to understand what is being said. It is too academic for an introduction. And Lacan is really tough to read in general. Also, too great portion of the book goes on the feminist feedback to this authors, which is, no surprizes there, an absoulute trash and shouldn't be given that much of an attention. On the bright side, female author of this study also on a few places critisizes feminist authors for not understanding what they are actually talking about, so it compensates, in a way.

48/200 - Riders on the Storm: My Life with Jim Morrison and the Doors by John Densmore (5 stars)

Length: 268 pages

Short description: This is a very fine (auto)biography of a band. and it's drummer. I really enjoyed reading it, for it has soul, some raw emotions, style, honesty, and is very well written in literary sense in general. It demistifies some aspects of the Doors, and it's author is very hones with himself writing about his relationship with Morrison. It is a love/hate thing, and is presented in best way possible, even though author would surely be much more popular among todays Doors fans if he kept silent about some truths concerning the Morrsion myth. Also, this book really takes you back in time and lets you experience how was it living in insane 60's.

49/200 - Uzvanik posljednjih svečanosti by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (2 stars)

Length: 104 pages

Short description: This is a collection of translated short stories written by some romantic French writer I haven't heard of until now. First 2 stories are kind of ok, but the whole rest of them is awful, if you ask me. And the biggest dissapointment is that every single one of this stories has a great story buried somewhere inside itself, but the style by which those ideas were presented is awful, dull, boring, uninspiring, exhausting.

50/200 - Frajerski nokturno by Zvonimir Majdak (2 stars)

Length: 60 pages

Short description: A collection of poetry that of an author that pretends to be cool and hip, but fails miserably. His poems are quite forgetable, flavourless, boring, and seem very "fake". A completely forgettable experience.